Do You Work From Home? Great Tips To Stay Healthy

How To Stay Healthy When You Work From Home

For a lot of people, working at home is the absolute dream. Not only do you often get to control your own time, but you also get to wear whatever you want to work, along with lessening your commute from a long drive or train journey to simply rolling out of bed and sauntering towards your desk. Here are some tips on how to be your best self as you work from home…

Get Ready For Work

First of all, it’s important that you get ready for work every morning. No one’s saying that you need to put on a full face of makeup or a suit, but it’s important to make sure that you shower and that you wear clean clothes. Sweatpants or PJs are absolutely fine – but don’t wear the same PJs you slept in or the sweatpants that have been pooled on your bedroom floor over night.

You need to be and feel professional even though you’re working in your own home, so being clean, neat and tidy is absolutely essential. It’s also important that you give yourself some time in the morning to get ready – get up with plenty of time before you need to start work, eat a good and healthy breakfast, and make sure that you have all your personal tasks like dropping your kids at school and checking your emails over with before you have to start work.

Create A Good Work Space

It’s absolutely crucial that you create a good work space for yourself so that you’re comfortable while you’re working. Sitting at a desk all day can be bad for your back and neck, so make sure that you put a lumbar cushion on your chair – it’ll help to stop you suffering from lower back pain by ensuring that you get the support that you need. Make sure that you sit up straight and that you put both feet flat on the floor at all times – you should try not to sit lopsidedly.

Make sure that there aren’t any lights shining in your eyes or bouncing off your laptop screen into your face – you’ll get headaches and the health of your eyes will start to suffer. If you need extra light, a small desk lamp will be much better – and you should make sure that the room you’re working in has plenty of natural light and fresh air too. Try to ensure that you aren’t working in your bedroom – this might stop you sleeping well at night.

Eat Healthily

If you aren’t moving around for much of the day then you need to make sure that you don’t start accidentally packing on the pounds. It can be very easy to gain weight if you work from home as you have fewer excuses to walk around, plus it’s a lot easier to eat a pile of toast for lunch instead of going out to buy a salad from a local shop, which you might if you work at an office in a city.

Before you work, make sure that you eat a healthy breakfast – you should make sure that you’re full before you start work, to prevent yourself from snacking before lunchtime rolls around. If you like to eat cereal for breakfast, go for granola with fresh berries like blueberries and raspberries on top, and if you’re more of a toast person, go with peanut butter and banana slices or smashed avocado. If you’re not a breakfast person at all, then why not make a smoothie that you can sip through the morning?

For lunch, try to steer away from too many carbs, which can leave you feeling bloated and tired in the afternoon. Instead go for lean protein like chicken or salmon salad, or a wrap containing plenty of leafy greens, or rice salad with chopped up vegetables in it, or maybe even an egg dish like an omelet or scrambled eggs with salmon on the side. One of the joys of working at home is that you’re less constricted about what you can eat for lunch as you have your whole kitchen to work with!

Stay Active

You need to make sure that you move around as much as you can during the day, to prevent your muscles from getting sore and your joints from getting creaky. Take a long walk before you start work, or when you’re finished – getting some fresh air will be good for you both physically and psychologically, and you need to make sure that you keep moving so that your back doesn’t start to seize up. If the weather outside doesn’t look great then why not try some yoga!

Yoga With Adriene on YouTube is great for beginners – it’ll help you increase your core strength along with your balance and flexibility. It’ll also provide you with a little more spiritual peace if that’s what you’re into. Make sure that you get out of the house to stay healthy at weekends – go hiking with friends, or go for a bike ride with your kids. Finally, working at home gives you the great opportunity to get a dog, as you’ll be at home with it all day. Having a pet is great for your mental health and it’ll also encourage you to get out of the house to take it for walks.

Make Sure You Don’t Procrastinate

Finally, a lot of the time, the biggest battle you have to fight when you’re working at home is with yourself. It’s easy to start procrastinating no matter how dedicated you are to your job and if you find that it’s hard to focus then you need to make sure that that changes as soon as possible.

If necessary, work in short staccato bursts – set alarms on your phone so that you can work hard for half an hour and then give yourself a five-minute break to walk around to stay healthy, get a cup of tea or glass of water, and look out of the window. Set yourself deadlines and reward yourself when you make them, and most of all keep reminding yourself that you are what your success depends on.

I know all too well how great working from home is great, however, you need to make sure you stay healthy!